Many emergents (perhaps a large majority) believe in Theistic Evolution. How does this compare with what the Bible teaches? This short article is from the Christian and Apologetics Ministry.
A variation on the theme of evolution is theistic evolution. It states that God initiated life on earth and allowed evolutionary principles to bring man to where he is–maybe with a little help from God here and there. At least this theory includes God. But this theory was developed in part by Bible believing people who thought that evolution had some merit. In addition, it is an attempt to answer the many problems existing not only in the fossil record but also with how life could somehow randomly form out of nothing. Because of problems like this, some believe they can be explained by simply adding God to the picture: God directed evolution.
For those who hold to the Bible as the word of God, theistic evolution should not be a viable option. The Bible says, “Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us…” (Psalm 100:3). The Scriptures state that God created. God said, “Let there be…” and there was. The Scriptures speak of the creative word of God. When God speaks, it occurs. He said “Let there be” and it was so. It does not say, “Let there be a slow development through an evolutionary process.”
God said in Genesis 1:26, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” The Hebrew word for “make” in this verse, and in verse 25 where God makes the beasts, is “asah.” It means to do, work, make, produce. This is not simply the limited Hebrew understanding of evolutionary principles.
The land animals were made differently than man. The animals were made from the ground, but man was made directly by God: “the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7). Evolution states that man evolved from life forms that developed in the ocean. Here, God made man from the dust of the ground–not the water of the ocean.
If evolution is true and the Bible is true, then how is the formation of Eve explained? She was created out of one of Adam’s ribs (Gen. 2:22). There is no way to explain this if theistic evolution is true; that is, unless you want to say that Eve wasn’t made from Adam’s side. Then, if you do that, you are doubting the very word of God.
Also, Jesus said in Mark 10:6 “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.'” The beginning was not evolutionary slime; in the beginning of creation there was Adam and Eve.
Former Nazarene 
Death came because of man….
not man came because of death
as theistic evolution supposes.
Many Christian scientists, apologists and theologians believe in” homo divinus’ without necessarily subscribing to full blown theistic evolution. John Stott, William Lane Craig and Francis Collins to name just a few. Physical death occurred before Adam. After Adam and the fall is when sin and spiritual death, (which is eternally more important) entered the world. Jesus came to rescue mankind from spiritual death
( the second death). True disciples will be resurrected in glorified physical bodies while unrepentant sinners will suffer both physical and spiritual death on judgement day . I find this position interesting although not yet totally convincing. I am still investigating and remain agnostic on this particular topic.
If God did use macro-evolution to move the origin of his creation forward, then there would have to be abundant evidence of transitional forms from one kind to another in the fossil recored after all this time. However, there is not. On the other hand, if homo sapiens existed that were not made in God’s image before Adam, then the missing transitional links are exactly what you would expect. The homo sapien therefore was an ape/ cave man type creature who died physically in their quest for survival and were not created in God’s image, just like other beasts and creatures in Genesis 1.
Where are the holes in this hypothesis? Does believing in this negate a person’s salvation? I refuse to believe and see no evidence in scripture that God would condemn any one who believes the homo divinus hypothesis. It is the unrepentant atheistic evolutionist who according to scripture is condemned.
David, your argument is based on a lack of evidence, not the presence of it. There’s another reason why there would be an absence of transitional forms – there is no such thing as evolution and Adam was the first man (just as Genesis tells us).
Secondly, Homo Divinis may sound scientific but it’s not (with all due respect to the Latin language). The idea that men evolved up untill the time of Adam is problematic even if we ignore the idea of evolution. For instance, what shall we do with Adam’s contemporaries. Why were they not accepted when Adam and Eve were? Why does it tell us Adam was created (and Eve shortly thereafter) when you and John Stott are saying he evolved from his ancestors. Isn’t it much easier to just accept God’s account?
Even though it’s been over a year later, I need to make a correctiion to my previous post. I was not reswponding to ‘David’, but rather to John. Sorry for any confusion I may have caused.
Here is a Presbyterian Pastor John Otis publicly marking and exposing and demolishing of the stronghold of Tim Keller’s promotion of Theistic Evolution:
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=63131119404
Great article! Thank you for sharing. Theistic evolution and progressive creationism are growing like wildfire in the Vineyard Movement. It is very disheartening. I just released a short film about the issues with theistic evolution and evolution in the church and in the public school.
I’d love to hear your feedback if you have the time.
It can be watched for free at: http://www.HowDidWeGetHereMovie.com
Thanks again!
Sincerely & Godspeed,
William